REACTIVATED TARKUS

Urban Trapeze is a band formed in Barcelona, Spain, in 2004, the mastermind being keyboardist, main composer and vocalist Daniel Seglers. In 2006 they released a first album titled "Reactivated Tarkus; Rehearsals" which captured the seeds of this project, being more a sort of demo rather than a fully polished album. The band spent some time touring live but eventually split up, with some members moving to other countries. Fast-forward to 2021 and they were able to release this new album which shares some of the music with the debut, but this time recorded properly and with great artwork.

Let's get this straight: this is not a cover or re-interpretation of ELP's Tarkus. In fact, only the concept of the title suite, which occupies the complete side A of the vinyl, follows the story of Tarkus with some new episodes, after it was injured by the Manticore, which are wonderfully depicted in the album artwork in the same style as in the original ELP album.

Only the first two movements, "Revenge/Coda" and "Ironfish", loosely resemble Eruption and Stones of Years respectively. After these, the music takes its own different path, save for a very brief and subtle appearance of the Aquatarkus melody at the beginning of the 4th movement "Pyramid".

The rest of the suite features many more different influences, we can also hear Canterbury and RPI, as well as some early King Crimson and also influences from the '70s Spanish Prog. The presence of flute provides also some resemblance to Camel in some sections.

Side B of the vinyl contains 2 more tracks, both around 10 minutes long, where the Canterbury, RPI and early Crimson influences are even more notorious.

One thing I like about this album is its very natural sound, it's clear that it has not been overcooked with a DAW, overquantized or artificially perfected. This definitely contributes to its strong '70s feeling.

My vinyl copy came with a bonus CD which includes the vinyl album plus some 37 minutes of bonus live material: a shortened 11-minute long medley version of the title suite, 2 more tracks, a drum solo and a 12-minute improvisation called "Evolution". The sound quality is not perfect and especially the vocals sound very low in the mix, but it provides a glimpse to the live performances of the band and it adds some additional value to the carefully designed package.

A highly recommended addition to the discography of fans of Symphonic, RPI or Canterbury styles.